Making Mathematics Learning Visible

Knowing Thy Impact
John Hattie's work on Visible Learning is applied to Mathematics in his book titled Visible Learning For Mathematics: What Works Best to Optimize Student Learning.  In this book, the authors examine the plethora of "research-based" instructional practices in an effort to provide recommendations for best-fit teaching.  In a seminar in Toronto this summer, John Hattie recommended that educators resist getting seduced into a single form of instruction and opt for an understanding of the impact of various types of instruction to produce significant results and maximize student achievement.  He labelled it the Goldie Locks approach to instruction:"Not too hard and not too boring". This reminds me of Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development.  Matching instructional practices and strategies with the student's readiness to learn.  In sum, Hattie et al.'s framework asks the teacher to consider when particular teaching strategies are most beneficial, and where a student is in his or her understanding of a concept.